2007 Sunshine Tour
The 2007 Sunshine Tour was the eighth season of professional golf tournaments since the southern Africa based Sunshine Tour was rebranded in 2000, and the marked the beginning of a new era as the tour switched to a calendar based season, having previously been seasonal. The Sunshine Tour represents the highest level of competition for male professional golfers in the region.
| Duration | 11 January 2007 – 21 December 2007 |
|---|---|
| Number of official events | 29 |
| Most wins | 3: Louis Oosthuizen |
| Order of Merit | James Kingston |
← 2006–07 2008 → | |
The tour was based predominantly in South Africa, with 24 of the 28 tournaments being held in the country. Two events were held in Swaziland, with one each in Zambia and Namibia. There were five new tournaments, the Joburg Open, one of three events co-sanctioned by the PGA European Tour, the Nashua Golf Challenge, the Lombard Insurance Classic, the returning Mount Edgecombe Trophy, and the Nedbank Affinity Cup, introduced to the schedule as an appetizer to the high profile Nedbank Golf Challenge.
As usual, the tour consisted of two distinct parts, commonly referred to as the "Summer Swing" and "Winter Swing". Tournaments held during the Summer Swing generally had much higher prize funds, attracted stronger fields, and were the only tournaments on the tour to carry world ranking points, with three events being co-sanctioned with the European Tour.
The Winter Swing ran from March to November, starting with the Mount Edgecombe Trophy, and closing with the Coca-Cola Charity Championship. Since the tour switched to a calendar based season, this part of the tour effectively splits the Summer Swing into two, with five events being held at the start of the year, and the remainder in December. Due to these scheduling changes, the first five events of the 2007 season had already been part of the 2006–07 tour schedule, but continued to count towards the final standings of both.
The Order of Merit was won for the first time by James Kingston, breaking Charl Schwartzel's three year stranglehold on the title.
Schedule
The following table lists official events during the 2007 season.[1]
| Date | Tournament | Location | Purse (R) |
Winner[lower-alpha 1] | OWGR points |
Other tours[lower-alpha 2] |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jan | Joburg Open | Gauteng | €1,000,000 |  Ariel Cañete (n/a) |
20 | EUR | New tournament |
| 28 Jan | Dimension Data Pro-Am | North West | 1,600,000 | Louis Oosthuizen (2) |
14 | Pro-Am | |
| 4 Feb | Nashua Masters | Eastern Cape | 1,200,000 | Jean Hugo (5) |
14 | ||
| 18 Feb | Vodacom Championship | Gauteng | 2,200,000 | Richard Sterne (2) |
14 | ||
| 25 Feb | Telkom PGA Championship | Gauteng | 2,250,000 | Louis Oosthuizen (3) |
14 | ||
| 11 Mar | Mount Edgecombe Trophy | KwaZulu-Natal | 500,000 | Steve van Vuuren (7) |
n/a | ||
| 1 Apr | Finance Bank Zambia Open | Zambia | 750,000 | Steve Basson (3) |
n/a | ||
| 15 Apr | Eskom Power Cup | North West | 400,000 | Chris Swanepoel (1) |
n/a | ||
| 20 Apr | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Arabella | Western Cape | 400,000 | Andrew Curlewis (1) |
n/a | ||
| 5 May | Samsung Royal Swazi Sun Open | Swaziland | 600,000 | Des Terblanche (12) |
n/a | ||
| 11 May | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Pretoria | Gauteng | 400,000 | Hennie Otto (7) |
n/a | ||
| 19 May | Suncoast Classic | KwaZulu-Natal | 400,000 |  Adilson da Silva (3) |
n/a | ||
| 10 Jun | Lombard Insurance Classic | Swaziland | 350,000 | Peter Karmis (1) |
n/a | New tournament | |
| 15 Jun | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Selborne | KwaZulu-Natal | 400,000 | George Coetzee (1) |
n/a | ||
| 30 Jun | Nashua Golf Challenge | North West | 400,000 | Warren Abery (6) |
n/a | New tournament | |
| 3 Aug | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Bloemfontein | Free State | 400,000 | Ulrich van den Berg (5) |
n/a | ||
| 24 Aug | Vodacom Origins of Golf at Fancourt | Western Cape | 400,000 | Adilson da Silva (4) |
n/a | ||
| 31 Aug | Telkom PGA Pro-Am | Gauteng | 350,000 | Michiel Bothma (2) |
n/a | ||
| 8 Sep | Seekers Travel Pro-Am | Gauteng | 400,000 | James Kamte (1) |
n/a | ||
| 28 Sep | Vodacom Origins of Golf Final | Eastern Cape | 400,000 | Titch Moore (6) |
n/a | ||
| 7 Oct | Bearing Man Highveld Classic | Mpumalanga | 400,000 |  Marc Cayeux (8) |
n/a | ||
| 20 Oct | MTC Namibia PGA Championship | Namibia | 700,000 | Keith Horne (2) |
n/a | ||
| 27 Oct | Platinum Classic | North West | 705,000 | Louis Oosthuizen (4) |
n/a | ||
| 11 Nov | HSBC Champions | China | US$5,000,000 |  Phil Mickelson (n/a) |
52 | ANZ, ASA, EUR | |
| 22 Nov | Coca-Cola Charity Championship | Western Cape | 500,000 | Titch Moore (7) |
n/a | ||
| 28 Nov | Nedbank Affinity Cup | North West | 500,000 | Mark Murless (3) |
n/a | New tournament | |
| 2 Dec | Nedbank Golf Challenge | North West | US$4,385,000 | Trevor Immelman (5) |
34 | Limited-field event | |
| 9 Dec | Alfred Dunhill Championship | Mpumalanga | €1,000,000 |  John Bickerton (n/a) |
22 | EUR | |
| 21 Dec | South African Airways Open | Western Cape | €1,000,000 | James Kingston (8) |
32 | EUR | Flagship event |
Order of Merit
The Order of Merit was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in South African rand.[2]
| Position | Player | Events | Prize money (R) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Kingston | 10 | 1,980,689 |
| 2 | Louis Oosthuizen | 8 | 1,596,846 |
| 3 | Andrew McLardy | 5 | 1,387,475 |
| 4 | Hennie Otto | 20 | 1,331,376 |
| 5 | Richard Sterne | 5 | 966,547 |
Ernie Els was the fifth highest money winner (with R1,120,503.20) but did not qualify for the Order of Merit, having only played in three events. John Bickerton and Ariel Cañete were second and fourth respectively in the money list thanks to their victories in the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Joburg Open, but as non tour members, and having not entered sufficient events, they were also ineligible for the Order of Merit.
Notes
- The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of Sunshine Tour events they had won up to and including that tournament. This information is only shown for Sunshine Tour members.
- ANZ − PGA Tour of Australasia; ASA − Asian Tour; EUR − European Tour.
References
- "2007 Sunshine Tour schedule". Sunshine Tour. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
- "2007 Final Order of Merit". Sunshine Tour. 2007-12-16. Retrieved 2009-01-07.